Jesus spoke Aramaic

Jesus Spoke Aramaic is a problem with various books of the New Testament pertaining to the supposed quotations of Jesus and his followers. Even if we assume the authors of the New Testament books are who they say they are and that the text has been accurately preserved (neither case is very likely), this problem persists. A semi-formal description of the problem is:

Argument

• P1: All of the books in the New Testament are written in Greek.
• P2: Jesus and his followers most likely spoke Aramaic.
• P3: In a conversation, people rarely use a foreign language when they share a common language.
• P4: Most of the quotations of Jesus and his followers are of them speaking to each other.
• P5: Nearly all of the quotations of Jesus and his followers are in Greek.
• C1: Therefore, the quotations attributed to Jesus and his followers must have been translated from Aramaic to Greek.
• P6: Greek and Aramaic are far apart on the language tree.
• P7: The further apart languages are on the language tree, the harder it is translate.
• C2: Therefore, the quotations of Jesus and his followers probably have many problems.

I explain each of the premises and conclusions in further detail below.

P1: All of the books in the New Testament are written in Greek.

All of the earliest scraps archeologists have found of every New Testament book is written in Koine Greek. Although there is a very small minority of historians who suggest that some of the books of the New Testament were originally written in Aramaic and translated to Greek, they do not have any physical evidence to back this up.

P2: Jesus and his followers most likely spoke Aramaic.

Most historians agree that the Jews living in the region of Palestine during the turn of the era spoke Aramaic, for Jesus and his local followers, they probably spoke a Galilean dialect of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic. Also, a few of the quotes attributed to Jesus in the Gospels occasionally have words transliterated from Aramaic into Koine Greek.

P3: In a conversation, people rarely use a foreign language when they share a common language.

This should go without saying. In a conversation, people tend to speak the language they're most comfortable with. Since Jesus and his followers all shared the same primary language, they would have most likely spoke to each other in their Galilean dialect of Aramaic.

P4: Most of the quotations of Jesus and his followers are of them speaking to each other.

The vast majority of the dialogue of Jesus and his followers is them speaking to each other. This includes the Gospels, and the epistles attributed to the followers of Jesus.

P5: Nearly all of the quotations of Jesus and his followers are in Greek.

Including every quotation of Jesus, there are only 12 words that appear to be transliterated from Aramaic. All of the rest of the text is in Koine Greek.

C1: Therefore, the quotations attributed to Jesus and his followers must have been translated from Aramaic to Greek.

If we assume that the New Testament quotations of Jesus and his followers are genuine, they would most likely have been originally spoken in their Galilean dialect of Aramaic and then translated into Koine Greek.

P6: Greek and Aramaic are far apart on the language tree.

Linguists place languages on a tree showing their common descent over the years. Greek is on the Indo-European branch, while Aramaic is on the Afro-Asiatic branch. These are especially far apart, which is noted in the many large differences between the two.

P7: The further apart languages are on the language tree, the harder it is translate.

This is pretty straight forward. Spanish and Portuguese are very close to each other on the language tree, and likewise, speakers have little trouble translating between them. However, English and Japanese are very far apart on the language tree, and speakers often encounter problems translating between the two. These problems include idioms, cultural-specific ideas, historic words, etc.

C2: Therefore, the quotations of Jesus and his followers probably have many problems.

This follows from the facts. Even if we assume the quotations of Jesus and his followers are actually their own and have been preserved accurately over 2000 years, we still have to admit that it would be especially difficult to preserve the precise meaning and intent after translating from their Galilean dialect of Aramaic and then translated into Koine Greek.